


Mama Scully's Party

by tatooedlaura



Series: Life [1]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Ficlet, X-Files OctoberFicFest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-09
Updated: 2016-10-09
Packaged: 2018-08-20 09:52:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8244964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatooedlaura/pseuds/tatooedlaura
Summary: It started out as an innocent Thursday evening of cards ...





	

Why they had to use the hammock in the first place was comedy enough but watching them try to get in there had been priceless, at least according to Maggie, who spied on them until she knew they weren’t going to either kill themselves or each other.

It wasn’t a big party by any means but it was Thursday and Mulder and Scully, aka Fox and Dana, were there as well as several ladies of the neighborhood along with several decks of cards. As had become the Thursday evening staple, Mulder was leading the charge on Gin Rummy points but tonight, however, he was nursing his Rum and Coke faster than normal.

Given the case they’d just returned from on Wednesday and the fact that they told Maggie flat out that they wouldn’t, shouldn’t and couldn’t tell her anything about it for fear of giving her nightmares, Scully hit her glass of wine pretty hard … or should we say, her bottle of wine. No one judged them, no one questioned them, no one asked more than if they wanted a refill or another slab of ribs.

Mulder had come to truly enjoy his weekly card games at Maggie’s house. The Scully’s were his family, regardless of if he ever managed to work up the nerve to kiss Scully, then marry her or ask to be adopted by Maggie. Both had about the same chance of happened at this point in his life and, though he’d rather marry his partner, a set of adoption papers bearing Maggie’s signature weren’t the shabbiest backup plan in the world. He thought about this yet again as he whooped the two old ladies to his left and buried Scully into the ground with his winning hand, ignoring that she had enough alcohol swimming in her veins to have had to ask if 5 came before or after 6.

By his third Rum and Coke, however, he was having trouble holding the cards together in his hand, having to resort to propping a tablet of paper against a canister to shield his cards from others as he lay them down on the table, attempting to sort them in his more than intoxicated state.

Mrs. Stein or Betty, smiled gently at him, patting his arm, “if you need to Fox, I’m sure I can help you put out the cards you need to.”

Beaming a brilliant smile in her direction, “you are the best Betty ever.” 

Not ten minutes later, he lost his hand so miserably that he carefully stacked his cards when it was over and solemnly handed them to Ellie, the woman on his other side, “can you please deal me out, Ellie? I think I’m a little too drunk to play right now.”

She laughed as she took the cards, “of course, Fox.”

Looking around, he finally noticed Scully suspiciously absent from the room, “Maggie?”

From her chair two over from his, “yes, Fox?”

“Where are you hiding your daughter?”

“She went outside.” Glancing through the backdoor glass, “she’s sitting out on the deck.”

Squinting out along Maggie’s sightline, “I don’t see her. Are you sure?”

“Bend over a little, dear. You probably can’t see her because of the window frame.”

Mulder did as told, then, “ah-ha. You were right. She’s right there.” Pointing into the darkened backyard as he turned back to Maggie, “I see her. I’m going to go sit with her.”

“Go ahead, Fox. Just be careful on the steps, all right? I don’t need anyone falling down.”

“Aye-aye, Mama Scully.” Making his way unsteadily out the door and across the porch, he didn’t get to hear the gently laughter of the women inside or Maggie’s heartfelt, “he’s a good boy, my Fox.”

Once Mulder had maneuvered the wide spread of deck, he teetered once, then managed to drop down beside Scully, “how you doin’, partner?”

Scully, her chin propped on her hand, precariously balanced on her knee, flopped her head in his direction, managing not to tip over in the process, “not too bad, partner. Yourself?”

“I’m pretty sure I’m a little bit drunk.”

“Oh, hell, I passed drunk an hour ago. I just meant I’m not passed out yet so I’m doing damn fine.”

“You are damn fine.”

As if the alcohol wasn’t making her cheeks hot enough already, now he had to go and make a comment that sent them up into triple digit temperatures. About to come back with some lame response to get his mind away from that dangerous line of thought, she instead noticed that his eyes seemed to be the softest shade of green she’d ever seen. How had she not noticed this in all those years of staring at him without looking like she was staring at him?

He always knew she was staring but he sure as hell wasn’t about to tell her that.

When there was no witty or unwitty comeback, he gave her a grin, “made you speechless, didn’t I?”

“No! I just … I didn’t know what to say.”

“We call that speechless, Scully, out here in the real world.”

She bumped him with her shoulder, causing her to lose her hold on her chin and leaning both of them against the railing post. Discovering that she was fairly comfortable smushed against him, she made no effort to move, enjoying his large arm and his intoxicating, Mulder smell. Before she knew it, she’d buried her nose in his sleeve, taking a good long inhale before giggling, “with everything you drank, you don’t smell anything like Rum or Coke.”

He laughed at her, “thank God. What do I smell like then?”

After another deep breath, “you smell like Irish Spring soap and Old Spice deodorant and BBQ sauce and,” with a third sniff, “a little bit of sweat and a little bit of me.”

“You?”

Rubbing her cheek against his shirt, “yup. I’ve marked you, Mulder. You’re mine.”

“Calm down, calm down, calm down …”

“What?”

“What what?”

Scully looked at him over his shoulder, keeping her face against him, “you were whispering ‘calm down’. Was that for you or me?”

Well, now, this was embarrassing, but given his mental acuity at the moment, he couldn’t think of anything but the truth, “for me.”

“Oh.” She tried to figure that out but her brain was somewhere five steps behind and the lag was getting worse by the minute so she promptly forgot about it, “I’m tired, Mulder. Are you okay to drive home?”

“Are you kidding me? I’m not sure I can navigate to the bathroom at this point, let alone remember how to use a freeway entrance ramp. I’m assuming you can’t drive either.”

“I could but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t get us further than the tree across the street and Lillian loves that tree.” Scully’s eyes drifted even further out of focus, “it’s a really great tree. Been there for decades. Ran into it once on my bike, Bill fell out of it a lot, broke his arm, Lillian’s kids used to dare us to see who could climb the farthest up. It’s a maple tree, I think. Turns really red and orange in the fall. I wonder if we could get syrup from it. I should go ask.”

Mulder held her down with one finger on her knee, “we’ll ask later.”

“Ask what?”

Okay, she was way worse off than him and he was cruising for a five-alarm hangover as it was, “come on, Dana Scully, we need to go sleep this one off.”

“You said my full name.”

“I certainly did, buttercup, now let’s go. I need to have somebody point the bathroom out to me.”

“It’s through one of the doors downstairs.” Not moving like he wanted her to, she remained sitting, “I’ll wait for you here. It’s a nice night. We should sleep outside.”

Bladder urgency overtook her statement for the moment and shuffling as fast as he could, he got inside, got directions to the bathroom, then assistance by Maggie after he attempted to go into the pantry and became confused.

Once out of the bathroom, Mulder stumbled his way to the table, searching each face intently until he found Maggie’s, “is it all right if we here sleep tonight?”

Knowing they had been going nowhere for the night once they’d both poured their second drinks, she was ready for them, “which rooms would you like or would you prefer the couch? I can get Dana upstairs if you want.”

Mulder rubbed his face, recalling Scully saying something earlier, “I think Scully wants to sleep outside. I’m not sure where but she definitely said outside.”

“Um, all right. Well, the only places are the hammock or the porch chairs. Did she say exactly where?”

He had to think hard about this one, “no. Just outside but we’ll figure it out. Blankets? Can I borrow a pillow? Is it supposed to rain?” He walked to the sink and gulped down a giant glass of water without waiting for any answers, then turned back towards them, “g’night, ladies. Sorry to have drank too much but when there’s more heads than bodies, you kind of have to.”

With that, he disappeared outside again, leaving the five women dumbstruck, Ruth finally breaking the silence, “did he just say what I think he said?”

Maggie looked towards the back porch with such sympathy that it was nearly palpable to the rest of the room, “yes, he did. I’m going to go get them some blankets, if you don’t mind waiting for the next hand.”

Lillian came to help and soon, there were two pillows and two thick comforters stacked on one of the chairs. Mulder and Scully were once again sitting on the stairs, Scully leaning her head on Mulder’s shoulders and Mulder’s head leaning along the top of hers.

Coming up behind them, Maggie crouched down, kissing first one, then the other gently on the cheek, “g’night, Dana. G’night, Fox. I’ll leave the back door unlocked for you.”

Mulder’s response of, “thanks, mom,” made her stop, then smile as she returned to the house, making sure her chair faced towards them so she could help them if she needed to.

It didn’t take long before her daughter and Mulder were on the move, standing, then heading towards the framed hammock on the side of the deck. Well, swaying would be a better word but for now, at least they were moving in a forward direction. The first thump then giggle brought the ladies in the house to the windows, worried at first that someone had hurt themselves, but noticing a chair now far out of place, realized someone had kicked it on accident, causing the noise. No one, however, moved back away from the windows, given the inebriated pair was now attempting to get into the hammock, together.

“Maggie? Will the hammock hold them both?”

With a smile, “it will and more.”

“But should they be, oh, Jesus, I thought she was going to hit her head on the rail, should they be attempting that without some …”

Maggie finished her sentence, “parental supervision? Probably not but if we go out to help, I imagine Dana will just get stubborn and do something silly to prove she’d not as drunk as she is.” Watching the hammock swing wildly for a moment before Mulder got a hold of it, “but I think we should keep an eye on them just the same.”

Ruth shook her head, “how long do you think until they realize they’ve forgotten the pillows and blankets?”

“I give her another minute or … ooh, God, did someone remember to take their guns away from them,” wincing as Scully bumped into Mulder and he flailed wildly for a moment, “please tell me someone took their guns away?”

“I did. I had them put them in the safe in my room.”

There was a quiet thunk and another burst of giggles from Scully as she, having managed to roll herself into the hammock, immediately rolled out the other side, dropping to the ground. Mulder, tangled in the hammock trying to help her up, flapped his arms and finally extricated himself from the cloth nightmare.

“Maggie, next time, we need to make popcorn if we’re going to watch the circus on your back porch.”

With a smile, “remind me.”

It took another few minutes and several more hilarious incidents before they both managed to wedge themselves into the swing. Then another few antics once they remembered the pillows and blankets. In this case, however, Mulder seemed to have made an executive decision and ordered Scully to stay in the hammock while he retrieved the items.

Two loud swears and three muffled ones later, both were settled in the hammock, pillows under heads and comforter pulled up, snug as bugs in rugs. Janet nudged Maggie, “we really should have told Dana to use the bathroom before all that.”

With a shrug, she smiled, “they’re adults … of sorts at the moment … they’ll figure it out.”

Just as they were wrapping up the cards and cleaning up an hour later, the door opened and Scully sleepwalked her way through the crowd, nearly taking out the trashcan in her trek to the bathroom, which, luckily, Janet had shoved out of the way just in time. Moving back through the crowd a minute later, eyes still closed and hair wild, Scully headed outside, all the ladies scurrying to the window to watch how the hell this was going to work.

To their great, collective surprise, Scully slipped right back beside Mulder, who held his arms up to her and pulled her close, setting the hammock gently rocking but spilling neither of them to the ground. Ruth spoke for the group, “he loves her, Maggie. When is she going to figure it out?”

“She has. She just won’t admit it yet.”

“Your child better figure it out quick or I’m sending my daughter over here to snap him up.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Smiling in the direction of her friends, “next week, ladies?”

“Of course.”


End file.
